• This Month on WestView News
  • Featured
  • Monthly Columns
  • Editorials
  • Articles
  • Briefly Noted
  • WestViews
  • Photos
  • Front Page
  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • EXTRA
WESTVIEW NEWS
Menu
  • This Month on WestView News
  • Featured
  • Monthly Columns
  • Editorials
  • Articles
  • Briefly Noted
  • WestViews
  • Photos
 › Briefly Noted › Letters › The Community Starts on Your Block

The Community Starts on Your Block

Web Admin 04/02/2019     Briefly Noted, Letters

Think about it—a city block in New York can have a larger population than a small town in Kansas, and problems can start right at your door.

Yesterday, as I walked up Charles Street to West 4th Street, I discovered to my disgust that somebody had painted his name in comic book script across a newly painted wall—and very big, like eight feet of balloon script.

Or consider my widowed neighbor who discovered that her real estate tax had jumped to a crushing $51,000.

Your block—your street—is your living room and it can look as bad or as good as neighbors collectively want to make it look, as we did on Charles Street. We planted 110 trees and covered ugly massive concrete blocks (set out by the police department to prevent officers from parking their private cars in front of the bomb squad exit door) with handsome wood planters.

If you don’t have a block association I can guarantee that you know very few of your neighbors. That’s the New York culture—we don’t impose on the guy who lives next door.

We started a block association on Charles Street 40 years ago when the city offered to dig a hole if a block association would buy a tree. And then we had block parties, Christmas parties, summer rooftop parties, and meetings to discuss garbage pickup and spring planting. And a funny thing happened: we got to know some of our neighbors who are still our friends after 40 years.

—George Capsis


George Capsis is the publisher of WestView News. (westviewnews.org.)

 Previous Post

Fruit Vendor

Next Post 

Spring Gardening

Related Articles

Letters
Westviews: Correspondence, Commentary, Corrections
George Capsis, Editor of WestView News
Publisher’s Apology to Our Readers
Correspondence, Commentary, Corrections
LETTERS
William Sydney Porter
April WestView
There’s Always “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries”
Kennedy Love Child
Restore a Hospital
Karma is NOT Fake News
WestView as Pick-Me-Up
Cheers to Northwell!
WestView’s Diversity
Does Anybody Read WestView?
Open Letter to Representative Carolyn Maloney
I’ve Seen The Light And It Ain’t Pretty
Cath Lab Matters
Advertising Success in WestView News
Thanks to West 13th Street Alliance
Affordable Housing Lottery Assistance
Long Live WestView News!
Praise for WestView
West Village Birds
Collective Conviction Is a Brand of Truth
Palestinian Human Rights
American Greed, Starring Steve Croman
561 Greenwich Street and 100 Vandam Street Add to “Hudson Square”
16 East 16th Street: An Illusion of Stone and Old Lace
Scams on the Rise
Historic Cobblestones
Thank You!
Courage to Publish
Act of Bravery
WestView Admired
Hi, Mr. G. Capsis: This is Lily. I am in third grade at PS340.
There Goes the Neighborhood: The 14th Street Dilemma
14th Street Bus Fiasco

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

February 2021

Subscribe Now

February 2021

Donate Now

Read the Archives

Sign up for WestView News EXTRA

Copyright © WestView News